Rodgers Has Money Performance at U.S. Bank

On Sunday, he went 32-of-44 for 364 yards and four touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 127.5 - more than 50 points better than his first four trips to the stadium.

MINNEAPOLIS – Aaron Rodgers was supposed to be ticked off about his new circumstances with the Green Bay Packers. Instead, as Sunday’s kickoff approached, he was calm, confident and at ease. In the days before the game, he smiled, he joked, he was introspective.

He opened the door to his preparation by mentioning how he had learned after watching film of himself from 2010. He volunteered that he had spent much of the offseason focusing on himself and “finding my center” through an unusual offseason.

Combined with the comfort that comes from having a year of experience in coach Matt LaFleur’s offensive system and the lack of experience in the Vikings’ secondary, what happened at Minnesota on Sunday perhaps shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Rodgers, coming off two mediocre-by-his-standards seasons, laid waste to Mike Zimmer’s defense as Green Bay pillaged the Vikings 43-34. In his first four trips to Minnesota’s U.S. Bank Stadium, Rodgers was 65-of-108 passing for 645 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. His passer rating in those games was merely 75.6. He was sacked 12 times in three of the games and suffered a broken collarbone in the other.

On Sunday, he went 32-of-44 for 364 yards and four touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 127.5. He wasn’t sacked and never got close to throwing an interception. Of the 12 incompletions, four were intentional throwaways and three were drops.

“I seen that laser focus come since the beginning of the week,” receiver Davante Adams said after a monster performance of his own.

“Obviously, he’s always extremely focused, but there’s a certain type of look in his eye he has and he definitely had that going into the week – walking around wearing his headphones and doing some stuff that you don’t necessarily see all the time. I’m real observant so I watch a lot of things. People may not know, but I pay attention to a lot of stuff. When I see my guy having his hood on his head and he’s got headphones on. As soon as we leave a meeting, he’s popping headphones back on, I don't know what’s he’s listening, too, but whatever it is, I need to listen to that as well. That’s my guy.”

Rodgers wouldn’t divulge his choice of music but he was locked in from the start. After a couple early red-zone failures, the Packers scored five touchdowns in a span of six possessions. Eight of the nine possessions he led got into Vikings territory, and JK Scott only punted once.

“I was pretty calm this week, I think, at times,” Rodgers said. “I think he probably saw some fire this week in practice that I wanted to bring the energy and let the guys know this was an amp-up time and that things are going to be moving faster and more important your urgency’s go to go up. It’s not training camp anymore; this is the real deal and, even though we don’t have fans, it counts. Every game matters. I’m proud of the way the guys stepped up. I think part of my role as a leader is to bring that energy and to bring that focus to times when maybe there’s a lull. Today was a good example, we went up by a few scores, they went down and scored and we just kept answering back and answering back with important throws and catches and plays. I wish he wouldn’t say that kind of stuff, it puts more pressure on me. In actuality, as focused as I was during the week, game day is all about calm and trying to get in that flow state, and I felt like I was in it from the start.”

In trips to Minnesota, Rodgers had his first 300-yard game since 2012 and his first 100-passer-rating game since 2014.

Even with presumptive right tackle Billy Turner inactive and starting guards Lane Taylor and Lucas Patrick dropping out with injuries, Rodgers generally had plenty of time to dissect a young secondary. Combine Adams’ excellence, superb pass protection and a game plan that stretched the Vikings’ defense horizontally and vertically, Rodgers had a big day and the Packers got a big win to start the season.

“The big focus of this offseason for me in training camp was, I've talked about seeing some stuff in some old film, but a lot of it was the comfort in the offense,” Rodgers said. “I feel like I can deal the ball as quickly as I want to and today was a good start for that. I feel like I was on time with my throws. There wasn't the need for a lot of extended plays and the couple that we had turned into pretty good plays. I'm feeling good about the tempo that we had, feeling good about the rhythm and the balance that I had in the pocket, as well.”